Joël Le Scouarnec's sexual abuse of children - why was it not stopped sooner? - A single, simple answer appears impossible

By: Tom Cloyd (Published: 2025-05-27; reviewed: 2025-05-28:0829 Pacific Time (USA))

Joel Le Scouarnec, aged 74 and once a pediatric surgeon in France, has confessed to sexually abusing 299 victims between 1989 and 2014, most of them children. In a trial that started in Brittany in February and is still ongoing, he has told the court that “he ‘committed despicable acts’ and ‘understood and shared the suffering’ caused to many of his patients.” He has stated that he considers himself responsible for the death of two of them.¹

An obviously pressing question is how this could have gone on for so long, without being stopped. There appears not to be a single, simple answer.

 

He was arrested in 2017 for exposing himself to a 6-year-old neighbor. A police search of his home found abundant written of a 25-year history of sexual abuse, mostly of children. He lost his license to practice pediatric surgery soon after. Convicted in 2020 of abusing 4 young girls, including two of his nieces, he is currently in prison.²

A careful reading of reports indicate several causes for the long duration of his criminal activity.

Lack of awareness of, or inability to report, the sexual abuse. Many vitims were young. We know that many were anesthetized and could have had no memory of what happened. It is likely that if memories existed the young children did not realize it was abuse, or believed they were experiencing appropriate medical procedures.

Multiple family secrets, closely held. In the current ongoing trial, multiple family members have spoken of sexual abuse by multiple perpetrators, in a family that kept its secrets to itself. Multi-generational sexual abuse was reported, as what was child sexual abuse by perpetrators outside the family. The family appeared to be normal and healthy, except for those who knew of the sexual abuse.²

Naive beliefs about the extent of the abuse. Seventeen years prior to his arrest, a young niece told her mother of his sexually abusing her. Her mother confronted her brother but did not go to the police, saying years later that she thought her daughter was his only victim.²

Failure of medical officials to act quickly and decisively. In 2005, Le Scouarnec was convicted of downloading child sexual abuse imagery. He was allowed to continue his medical practice. The physician head head of the official board supervising doctors in Finistère, Brittany where Le Scouarnec was practicing “…almost unanimously that Mr. Le Scouarnec’s actions had not breached the medical code of ethics.”³

Overall, there appears to have a pervasive sense, across generations, individuals, and institutions, that nothing especially serious was happening. So, it continued to happen.

References ^{^}

Gozzi, L. (2025-05-20). French paedophile surgeon says he is “responsible” for deaths of two victims. BBC.com https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdeddl8g47yo

Porter, C., Breeden, A., & Le Stradic, S. (2025-03-5). In Mass Child Sex Abuse Case in France, Early Warnings Went Unheeded. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/world/europe/france-child-sex-abuse-trial-le-scouarnec.html

Porter, C., & Le Stradic, S. (2025-05-27). A French Pedophile Doctor Abused Hundreds in His Care. Why Wasn’t He Stopped? The New York Times. /Library. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/world/europe/joel-le-scouarnec-france-doctor-pedophile.html

Notes ^{^}

 

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